The Forgotten Marauder
by nobodymuch
Summary: A story featuring a young teen, Aerin, who comes to Hogwarts after being kicked out of Beauxbatons. Stubborn and determined, Aerin refuses to show people anything other than her fierce personality... until she meets Sirius Black.
1. Chapter 1

**The Forgotten Marauder**

Her head ached. She was dizzy and the ground seemed to spin. But she'd never admit it.

The man looked at her, expecting to see some sign of weakness, or nausea. He was used to seeing it. He worked for the Ministry of Magic, and his job was to transport under-age wizards to places a good ways off- by Apparating, of course. He even expected she might fall to her knees on the soft grass that was a mile or so away from the Hogwarts grounds and quickly throw-up, thus removing the contents of her stomach.

But as he looked over the face of the stubborn sixteen-year old, he saw no weakness, no indication that she was going to be sick. Actually, it was quite the opposite- her sapphire eyes were clear and piercing as ever, her mouth curled into somewhat of a sneer.

There was only one word to describe her- defiant. Even her hair seemed defiant, as it fell down her back, and then twisted upward before it went past her hips.

Yes, she was certainly defiant. That was why she was here in the first place. In the words of her Headmistress at the renowned school of Beauxbatons- "she was a stubborn, challenging little wretch." So challenging had she been, that Beauxbatons had declared her too unlike a young lady, and had forced her to choose a different school to attend. Of course, she had chosen Hogwarts, not upset about leaving Beauxbatons in the least.

The man from the Ministry swallowed, for she was staring at him intently, not saying a word.

"If you please miss, I'll attend to your trunk, so-" he started.

She cut him off abruptly by dropping her trunk with a thud.

The man brought out his wand awkwardly. He mumbled something under his breath and the trunk vanished.

The girl merely gave a nod, to show her thanks, and started walking toward the distant Hogwarts castle, the lights from the windows glistening in the dark night.

The Ministry member scratched his head, confused. "Er… miss? Don't you want me to accompany you?" he yelled to her.

She didn't slow down her pace. "No thanks," she called back to him, not even so much as looking at him again. She preferred walking alone anyways.

Finally, she reached the gates that led to Hogwarts. They loomed above her, yet somehow didn't seem imposing. Suddenly, they swung open, revealing a man standing behind them.

Without knowing why, she felt he was a friend at once. With his long, snow-white beard, and half-moon spectacles that covered his blue, flashing eyes, he seemed friendly- almost comical, in fact.

He smiled at her, seeming as though he'd known her for a long time. "Finally, our promising new student has arrived!" he welcomed her. "I am Professor Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts," he told her, extending a hand.

"Aerin Lorenta, sir," she said, shaking his hand warmly.

Dumbledore beamed at her. "How nice to meet you! But I must inquire- you don't go by Mc-Finch?"

Aerin winced slightly at the last name of her current guardian. It wasn't a forceful question. She knew she wouldn't be made to answer. That was why she went ahead and answered anyways.

"No sir. I prefer to use the last name of my… my first guardian," she replied hesitantly. She had wanted to say 'parent', but had stopped herself. Her parents were dead, after all.

Dumbledore nodded. He seemed as though he knew everything that had gone on in her life, and was sympathetic towards her. He began walking back towards the castle, gesturing for Aerin to follow.

Aerin usually was cautious towards sympathy. It almost always turned into pity, and she didn't accept pity. But she could tell Dumbledore would only be as sympathetic as she wanted him to be, and she felt she didn't need to act cautiously around him.

As they approached the huge doors that led into Hogwarts itself, Aerin felt as though she'd shrunk quite a bit. Never, since quite a long time ago, had she felt so small and insignificant.

But she brushed the feeling away hurriedly. She was here, at a new school, full of new people, and she intended to make an impression.

The doors swung open, just as the gates had, and she proceeded inside with Dumbledore. The warmth seemed to wrap itself all around her, pushing away the cold that had covered her while she'd walked outside on the grounds.

Dumbledore continued walking quickly, but not in a rushed sort of way. He approached a stone gargoyle and stopped before it.

"Sugar quills," he spoke calmly.

Aerin watched interestedly as the gargoyle sprang to the side, revealing a twisting spiral staircase. She followed him up the stairs, until they came to the most peculiar room she'd ever seen in her life.

It was full of magical items of all sorts, and on the walls, there were portraits of people she assumed to be previous Headmasters at Hogwarts. There was even a creature she recognized at once as a Phoenix.

Most of the objects in the room seemed bright and colorful, even if she couldn't make heads or tails of what some of them were.

However, Dumbledore surprised her by going to one of the shelves and grabbing one of the plainest objects in the room. It was a raggedy old hat, patched in several places, with a wide rip near the brim.

Aerin stared at the hat, as Dumbledore took a seat with it in hand, and motioned for her to sit down as well. She sat in another chair, watching the hat with interest.

Dumbledore smiled at her. "Now this," he started, pointing to the hat, "would be the Sorting Hat. It will sort you into one of the four Houses here at Hogwarts."

She continued to stare at the hat, understanding now why he'd gotten it down from the shelf, but was now starting to wonder how it would sort her. Aerin then went on to wonder what the Houses were like. She sounded them out in her mind. One, she liked the sound of in particular. Gryffindor. She repeated it once more.

After a pause, Dumbledore went on explaining about the Sorting Hat. He also added, as they drew near the end of their informative conversation, that her trunk would be immediately transported to the girls' dormitory of whichever House she was sorted into. With that, he handed her the old patched-up hat, and watched her jam it onto her head.

It was much too big for her, and went down to cover her eyes as well. She waited for a minute, feeling slightly ridiculous with the large patched hat on her head, and was about to inquire if she could take it off, when a voice spoke in her ear.

"Mmm… quite interesting… very interesting indeed," the hat commented.

Aerin got the most uncomfortable feeling that the raggedy old hat was enjoying looking at her thoughts, possibly even her past. She frowned a little, wishing for it to stop.

The Sorting Hat paid her no mind, and kept on evaluating. Every now and then it would let out a comment, like, "Well, that's peculiar" or, "Ah… mm-hmm…" Finally, it made its decision. "Gryffindor!" the hat called out.

Without the slightest idea why, Aerin felt a certain mix of pride and relief wash over her. Gryffindor… she still liked the sound of it.

* * *

**A/N:** This is my first fanfiction on here, and I'm trying my absolute best to keep updating it. I have the awful habit to start something, get interseted in it, then abandon it, never to work on it again. But I won't do that with this, I promise! 

A little specification on my vagueness about Aerin's background: Her past is so confusing, I'm sure I could write a whole different fan fiction about it. However, to save you the details, I'll just explain now that though she did attend Beauxbatons, she is not from the Beauxbatons area. Her current guardian happened to be in the area, so she attended there. It was only after she was kicked out that the matter of distance no longer mattered, and she was allowed to go to Hogwarts instead.

Well, now, that's that! Please review! It's really not hard! You click the button and type something nice (Or horribly mean...)about what you thought of the fanfiction! It MIGHT just take about thirtyto sixty seconds of your time onan average.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

She was following Dumbledore once more, hardly paying attention to where she was going. She was too busy wondering about her classmates. Aerin wanted to know what they'd be liked… and then again, she really didn't.

A bad habit of hers was to expect perfection. Of course, she wasn't perfect, and she knew it- but no matter how hard she tried to rid herself of that habit, she always expected too high. Anything less than what she expected seemed to disappoint her.

As they came to a stop, she ceased her thoughts for the moment. She glanced through the open doors and into the Great Hall, where she saw an endless sea of black robes, identical to the ones she'd changed into.

With a final glance back at Dumbledore, who was beaming at her, she walked through the doors. Though the conversation did all but cease, whispers started up like wildfire. As she passed by each table, all eyes turned to her.

But rather than look away and avert her eyes to the floor nervously, she stared right back at them, her fierce gaze never wavering.

Aerin knew why they were staring. For one thing, she was someone they'd never seen before. But for another, she had, of course, attended Beauxbatons. If she hadn't had the looks, she wouldn't have been accepted into Beauxbatons in the first place.

However, she didn't thrive in the spotlight of being noticed for appearances. If anything, she loathed and despised her looks- it was the one thing she had in common with the other girls at Beauxbatons. She continued walking past the tables. Everyone was still staring. Aerin knew she could have any of them as her friend, any at all- but she wasn't interested. Their awe of her meant nothing in her mind.

But suddenly, something caught her eye. There, at the very end of the Gryffindor table, were three pairs of eyes that didn't notice her. She smiled to herself- this was some hope for her. Hope that she could be noticed for something other than her looks.

Three boys at the table were talking among themselves… well, two boys actually. The third, who had rather untidy hair, and mischievous hazel eyes, was trying his absolute most to impress an exasperated red-head to his left.

The other two boys looked to be arguing about something. The first had sandy blond hair. He was quite pale, giving Aerin the image that he was unwell. As he continued talking, she noted by his slight frown that he was doubtful of whatever they were arguing about.

However, it was the other boy who caught her attention. With his shaggy black hair and dark laughing eyes, he looked like some ancient god brought down to Earth.

She swallowed- why did it feel hard to swallow? - and glanced away for a moment. It took her a minute to realize she had stopped walking. She scowled fiercely, as though daring anyone to give her a hard time about it. Of course, no one had that idea at all.

Sighing, she continued walking until she came to the end of the table. "Mind if I sit here?" she asked the blond. Aerin had decided she'd just not acknowledge the dark-eyed boy. Certainly if she just tried to forget about him, she could forget that feeling she'd had when she looked at him.

The blond paused his conversation to examine her. She was relieved to see that he didn't care too much about how she looked, due to his expression. He simply nodded to her.

Aerin sat down, to her relief, on the pale boy's right, while the black-haired boy was on his left. Staring at the food in front of her, she realized she wasn't very hungry. When the silence became too much to bear, she finally spoke. "Sorry… I don't believe I caught your name," she told the blond.

He nodded once more. "Remus Lupin," he told her, extending a hand for her to shake.

"Aerin Lorenta!" she introduced herself, grasping his hand firmly.

Through all of this, the dark-haired boy had gone suddenly silent. He'd noticed for the first time, the auburn-haired girl with the fierce blue eyes who'd taken a seat next to Remus. His mouth was open just the tiniest bit. He wanted to know who she was. He was absolutely positive that he'd never seen her before.

"James!" Remus called, to the boy who was still trying to impress the girl beside him. By now, the girl looked as though she were going to be sick.

James failed to notice Remus, and continued to flirt.

Remus rolled his eyes and tried again. "Oy! Potter!" he called again.

This time, James finally turned around in his seat to face Remus. "C'mon Moony! I was talking to Lily! Why'd you bug me?" he whined.

"This is Aerin," he told James, pointing to her. Aerin was staring intently at the table, still trying not to glance at the other boy.

"I'm James Potter!" he introduced himself. As soon as he'd finished his sentence, he turned back to the girl, only to see she was quickly walking out of the Great Hall. "Wait! Lily!" he called after her, then sighed and turned back to Remus and Aerin.

"Well… if I had to introduce myself, so does Padfoot," James grumbled, half to himself. "Introduce yourself, Black!"

The other boy was still staring at Aerin. Who was she? He was examining her so intently, he didn't even hear James.

James sighed, annoyed. "Well, since he won't talk, I'll just go ahead and tell you that this drooling idiot is-" he started.

The dark-eyed boy snapped back to his senses when he finally heard James. He interrupted him. "I'm not a drooling idiot!" he protested, though he wiped his mouth off just to be sure.

"Then introduce yourself," James retorted smugly.

The other boy glanced at Aerin nervously. "Er… right," he told James, clearing his throat. "Sirius Black," he told her.

Aerin was staring at him now. Never, in her whole life, had she been so glad for someone to notice her looks. But she knew she never had much respect for those who noticed her for her appearances, and she suspected that her looks were why Sirius was so nervous. She hadn't noticed how nervous he'd seemed before, but once he'd started talking, she'd been able to tell at once. She had now made up her mind that if he cared about her looks, she'd certainly lose any respect she'd had for him, and never have that awkward feeling again. She would just be friends with him. No- friends with all three of them. She didn't want to have to settle with someone who was absolutely desperate to be her friend- she wanted a challenge, a feeling of satisfaction. That was why she would be friends with these boys- these boys who didn't need anymore friends at all.

Sirius's eyes flashed towards her. Their eyes met for a moment; his looked away first. "So… you're new to Hogwarts?" he asked finally. It was a safe enough question. After all, they'd never had a new student who wasn't a First Year.

"I was kicked out of Beauxbatons," she explained honestly, smirking the slightest bit.

Now all three boys turned to stare at her. A Second Year who'd appeared to be passing by casually now turned and sprinted back towards his friends. News about this strange newcomer would definitely be worth something.

"And you're… proud about this?" James asked her disbelievingly, noting the tone of her voice when she'd spoken.

Aerin's smirk widened. "Well now, did you really expect I'd have followed the rules?" she inquired.

In the week that followed, wherever Aerin went, a crowd followed. News of the strange new girl who'd been kicked out of Beauxbatons had traveled quickly. However, the novelty of it finally wore off due to the fact that she never answered any of their questions and scowled at them constantly.

As soon as the last curious First Year stopped following her, she went back to hanging out with James, Remus, and Sirius. Well, actually… she really just showed up wherever they did, and watched them silently. Presently, she came to notice another boy who hung out with them. Aerin found his name was Peter. However, she didn't care about what Peter did very much. She found he was rather boring, and whenever she looked at him, he seemed pathetically afraid of her. The other boys were much more interesting.

Her classes were also something for her to look forward to. At Beauxbatons, her classes had been quite boring. They'd done mainly bookwork and essays, and when they actually got to perform spells, they were often boring spells that had quite un-interesting effects. Here at Hogwarts, she was thrilled to be able to actually perform spells that sometimes made no sense at all. In Defense Against the Dark Arts, she made her way to the top of the class, surprising everyone, including herself, by being able to perform nearly all the defensive spells the class was assigned. That wasn't the only surprise she offered during her classes, either. In History of Magic, she was on the edge of her seat, listening to every word Professor Binns said. She didn't write any notes, but anyone who wasn't already asleep could tell that she was actually taking in what he said.

However, for as excellent as she was at Defense Against the Dark Arts, she was twice as dismal at Transfiguration. The entire class roared with laughter as she attempted to transfigure her stool into a book, and ended up turning Peter into a very fat tree frog. Well… she doubted that would make him any less afraid of her.

The days came to pass with similar results in the classes, until finally, the weekend arrived. It wasn't an ordinary weekend either. Since Aerin had come a little later in the year than the other students, winter had already settled in the day she'd arrived. As she came down to the Common Room Saturday morning, she saw a notice about it being a Hogsmeade trip.

At first she was confused, and merely stared at the notice blankly, but as she thought back, she vaguely remembered getting a form signed that had mentioned something about trips to Hogsmeade.

She pondered so long on whether to go or not, that she had to run to catch up with the large group of students when they set off walking across the grounds.

Aerin knew that she'd made the right decision when Hogsmeade came into view. The shops were absolutely brilliant, each and every one of them full of color and light as people rushed back and forth for holiday shopping. It was chilly out, and her cheeks were already red from the cold air, so she headed for a small, warm-seeming building.

It turned out to be a pub- and it also turned out to be the place the boys had come first as well.

Remus and Sirius were arguing over something, just as they had been the day Aerin first met them, while Peter watched, and James was getting butterbeers.

Remus stopped talking as he saw Peter dart behind Sirius. "Aerin's here, isn't she?" Remus asked, trying to keep from laughing at Peter's behavior.

Sirius glanced towards the doorway and saw Aerin. He smiled a little, and felt pleasantly warm. Ever since he'd noticed she always seemed to pop up wherever he and his friends were, he'd felt like that a lot lately. For any other girl in the school- and there were quite a few that had their eyes on him- he would have called this 'stalking', but she was so quiet about it… wait, what the heck was he doing? Without realizing it, he'd been waving at her to come sit with them.

Aerin bit her lip. For a moment, she even considered walking right back out the door. But, finally, she walked over to where they were and took a seat next to Sirius, ignoring the fact that Peter whimpered a bit, and ducked behind Remus instead.

Before any of them could start talking again, James returned with the butterbeers. He'd seen Aerin come over and bought one for her too.

It turned out that Aerin had never had any butterbeer at Beauxbatons. She absolutely loved it, as soon as she took her first sip, and drank the whole mug of it in less than three minutes.

Presently, Sirius and Remus began arguing again, in hushed voices, only this time, James took part in it as well. Aerin managed to catch a few words of what they were saying.

"I'm telling you Padfoot, it would never work! Maybe if we caught him in the library… but the Tower?" Remus asked Sirius, one eyebrow raised.

"Well he'd have time to fix it so no one would see if we did it in the library! It'd be better to get him while he's asleep, Moony!" Sirius protested.

James nodded. "We want it to last, not have him get rid of it!" he told Remus, clearly agreeing with Sirius on whatever the argument was about.

Remus opened his mouth to say something, but Aerin cut him off. "Mind if I ask what you're talking about?" she spoke up suddenly.

Sirius was slightly startled. It had been so long since she'd last spoken to them, he'd nearly forgotten that she could speak at all.

"Well… you see, there's this boy, Serverus Snape, and he's a horrid little piece of work. We're… planning on doing something to him… but we want to do it in the Slytherin Tower. Well, actually, I'm pretty sure it's not really a Tower," James explained.

Aerin nodded thoughtfully. She pretty much understood now. Since she'd never seen Snape before, she didn't know why the boys disliked him so much… but she trusted their judgment.

Remus sighed and shook his head. "But you two forgot one little detail- the password," he told them.

Sirius and James exchanged looks for a moment. It was obvious that they hadn't thought through how they were going to get inside.

Aerin had gone silent for the moment. She looked like she was trying hard to remember something that had happened a long time ago. As a grin slowly made its way up her face, all of the boys glanced at each other worriedly.

Finally, she glanced back at the boys, still grinning. "Well now… show me what you plan to do to Snape, and I believe I can help you with the rest."

"But how would you-" Remus started.

"You'll see," Aerin smirked.

"But-" Remus tried again.

"Now Moony, you heard the lady!" Sirius laughed. However, his laughter ceased as he noticed James smirking at him. "What are you thinking, Prongs?" he asked nervously.

James continued smirking. "She wants to know what we're planning on doing to Snape, so…" he said innocently.

Sirius gaped at him. "But why me? Couldn't you use someone else as an example?" he whined.

James stared at him hopefully. It was obvious he wouldn't stop asking.

Sirius sighed in defeat. "Fine. But you do know the counter curse, right?" he asked suspiciously.

James nodded, pleased with getting his way. He drew out his wand from his pocket. "Of course I know the counter curse! At least… I think so…" he told him.

"James!"

James laughed. "I was just giving you a hard time!" he grinned. In the next instant, he flicked his wand, and Sirius's shaggy black hair immediately changed… to pink? Not just any shade of pink either. It was a bright, hurt-your-eyes-to-look-at sort of pink.

Remus, Peter, James, and Aerin all tried to hold back their laughter at first, but when they started choking, they couldn't help but double over from laughing so hard.

Aerin managed to look up at Sirius when she'd calmed down momentarily from her fits of laughter. It surprised her how, even though it was hilarious, he still looked amazing, pink hair and all.

James was laughing so hard that he fell right out of his chair and continued laughing on the floor.

Sirius scowled. "Oh, ha ha, very funny. Now change it back!" he demanded.

James had to take several deep breaths and lean against the chair for support before he managed to calm himself. With another flick of his wand, Sirius's hair was returned to normal.

Sirius gave a sigh of relief, then grinned at Aerin, giving away the fact that he'd found it funny too. "So… mind telling us what your plan for getting into the Slytherin Tower is?" he asked after a moment.

Aerin was grinning madly by now. Rather than saying anything, however, she started looking around the pub, until she stood up from the table and walked over to a young Slytherin.

"You think maybe she'll mortally wound him?" James asked hopefully. He and Sirius were known for many things at Hogwarts, and hating Slytherins was one of them.

However, what she did next was something none of them expected. She began talking to the boy, smiling sweetly. They could even hear her giggle a few times.

"I didn't know that she could giggle," James said in a state of complete disbelief. "Bloody h-" he started to say, before Remus instinctively cut him off by clamping a hand over his mouth.

Sirius could feel his face growing hot. His fists were even clenching and unclenching slightly. He was so angry with this little insignificant Slytherin pipsqueak, that he didn't trust himself to say anything.

A few minutes later, Aerin returned, looking as though she might gag. She'd never been much of a fan of flirting. But once she sat down next to Sirius again, she wore a look of smug triumph.

All of the boys, including Peter, stared at her as though she'd completely lost her mind.

"The password's 'Boomslang'. I'm sure it'd be best to meet up in the Common Room at one in the morning- that way we could go ahead and dye his hair before having to worry that the password will have changed," she explained.

The boys continued to gape until James finally caught on that she'd only acted so unlike herself so that the kid would tell her the password. "Genius!" he yelled happily.

They all discussed it for a bit, and decided Aerin's plan was, indeed, the best one.

As Remus and James went ahead and left the pub, James was so excited, it looked as though Christmas had come early for him. He was ecstatic, not only at the fact that their prank would work after all, but also because they'd found someone with a mind as devious and mischievous as their own minds.

Peter followed after them, sending one last terrified glance at Aerin.

Aerin and Sirius stared at each other for a moment, neither making a move to get up. A question that had been dormant for some time at the back of her mind suddenly burst forth to the surface, no longer able to be contained. "So… does this mean we're friends?" she asked, eyebrows furrowed.

Sirius glanced at her, a bit surprised at her sudden question. It took him a moment to realize that he had been wondering the exact same thing. "Well… I… I suppose so," he stammered.

Aerin nodded. She appeared happy, but somehow solemn at the same time. That was exactly the answer she'd wanted to hear.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The rest of the day was spent visiting the rest of Hogsmeade. By far, the place that Aerin loved most was the sweetshop, Honeydukes. She bought some of almost everything in the store, running to and fro from counter to counter, trying something new each time.

However, the boys preferred Zonko's Joke Shop. Sirius and Remus took the privilege of showing Aerin which items had what effects, while James went about examining any new inventory Zonko's had gotten in. All of them emerged from the store, pockets bulging with different sorts of prank materials.

The only awkward situation they ran into was when they went to look at the Shrieking Shack. Aerin was quite curious about it, and kept asking questions. The boys simply tried to change the subject each time.

Finally, when all of them had depleted their money a considerable amount, they decided to head on back to Hogwarts.

They all walked in silence for awhile, until they reached the grounds, and Hogwarts came into view.

Sirius glanced over at Aerin, noting that she was shivering. He took off his jacket and held it out to her.

Aerin shook her head vigorously, and immediately clenched her teeth as she tried to stop shaking. "No… I'm good," she insisted. When Sirius raised an eyebrow, she shrugged uncomfortably and once again assured him that she was alright.

Finally, they made it inside, and went on to the Gryffindor Tower. Each of them took up the time their own ways. James and Sirius were cheerfully debating over who'd bought the best items from Zonko's, while Remus watched them amusedly. Aerin was sitting by one of the windows, her quill flying wildly across a piece of parchment. Peter was putting in an opinion or two on James and Sirius's debate.

One by one, they headed up to bed until they'd meet up again at one in the morning.

Remus decided to actually try and get some sleep in, before having to head back down to the Common Room. This proved difficult, however, since James and Sirius decided to keep themselves awake by talking to each other until the time came around. By the time one' o'clock finally arrived, both Sirius and James had been bombarded by a flurry of pillows from Remus's direction. Poor Remus had been desperately trying to shut them up.

Quietly, each of them got up and crept downstairs. However, they were surprised to see Aerin already there.

She didn't look so great, though. Her eyes were red and puffy, and she looked a bit paler than usual. Upon seeing them, she opened her mouth to say something, but ended up sneezing instead. She sniffed a little bit. As they stared at her inquisitively, she shrugged. "I caught a-" the red-haired teen started, before being cut off abruptly by a fit of coughing. "Cold," she finished.

Sirius raised an eyebrow worriedly. "If you're not feeling okay then maybe you shouldn't come along."

Aerin gave him such a fierce glare, that he knew that had been a worthless suggestion.

James glanced from one to the other, impatiently. "Okay… she's got a cold, but she wants to go… so let's just go!" he whined.

Sirius sighed in defeat, and relented, though not before sending another worried glance at Aerin.

It was so late, James had figured there was no reason to use the invisibility cloak, though he did love to disappear under it. Most likely, it was better this way, considering Aerin didn't even know about the cloak, and he wasn't sure yet of how well she could keep a secret.

So, as they carefully stepped out from the portrait hole, they would've been perfectly visible by the pale moonlight that was shining through the windows. Fortunately for them, all of the professors had already gone on to bed.

They all made their way silently to the dungeons, no one saying anything, just in case someone was still on watch. However, the silence was broken by James, who'd had a sudden question pop into his mind. "Hey… we don't know exactly where the Slytherin Tower is, do we?" he asked.

Remus gave James and Sirius a sort of 'I-told-you-so' look, but sighed, showing that he'd been looking forward to this prank as well.

Aerin, on the other hand, was smirking away, though you could still tell she was sick. The boys waited eagerly, but nervously, for they'd pretty much come to understand that that smirk of hers often meant she knew something that they didn't.

Presently, they continued walking, and Aerin took the lead when they arrived at the dungeons. The only sounds were once again their muffled footsteps, and Aerin's occasional cough or sneeze.

She stopped suddenly at a part of the wall that appeared to be blank. On the wall opposite from it, hung a portrait of a rather grouchy-seeming man, who it turned out, had decided to stay awake. When he saw them approach, his mood decreased further. "You lot! I'll report you to the caretaker if you don't-" he started grumpily.

Aerin coughed. "Oh, shut up, you," she told the portrait irritably, before turning back to the blank wall. "Boomslang," she remarked.

The boys watched excitedly as a door was revealed, as if from nowhere, and slowly swung open.

The Slytherin Common Room was not at all pleasant, being filled with shades of greens, and occasional cold-looking silvers. Even the fire seemed distant, and not as warm as the fire in the Gryffindor Common Room had been. At least no one was downstairs, though. The boys headed for a staircase that they assumed led to the boys' dormitory. However, they were proven wrong as the staircase changed to a slide, and they were sent tumbling down again.

Remus stood up dizzily. "Okay… so that was the girls' dormitory," he corrected, waiting for James, Sirius, and Peter, before heading over to the other staircase. When they looked behind him, they were surprised to see Aerin was able to come up the staircase to the boys' dormitory.

"That's not fair…" James grumbled under his breath.

All of them kept going, until they finally approached the right room.

"Lumos," Aerin whispered quietly, giving them just enough light to tell who was whom in the room.

James approached a sallow-faced, pale boy, who had greasy hair, and quite a large nose. Aerin supposed this must be Snape.

It was taking everything he had in him for James not to laugh as he raised his wand. Finally, he mumbled something almost inaudibly, and the greasy mat of hair that belonged to Snape was instantly turned the same sort of pink that Sirius's had been. All the boys, plus Aerin, were holding their sides from struggling not to laugh out loud.

Finally, Sirius calmed down a bit. He made his way over to the trunk at the end of Snape's bed, and muttered, "Alohamora," so that the lock on the trunk came right off.

"What are you doing?" James hissed over to Sirius curiously. He'd been planning on leaving to head back to the Gryffindor Tower shortly after dying Snape's hair.

Sirius pulled out all of Snape's robes, including his winter cloak. He smirked for a moment, before raising his wand and pointing it at the robes and cloak. They too were dyed that brilliant pink. Though it may have been her imagination, Aerin was pretty sure that they looked a bit frilly now as well.

Sirius grinned proudly as he tossed the clothes back into the trunk, and put the lock back on.

Suddenly, two things happened at the exact same moment- Aerin sneezed loudly, and her wand stopped supplying light.

All of them stood perfectly still for the moment as they saw Snape's outline stir slightly. They held their breath as the outline groped for something at his bedside table that was certainly his wand. But- to their relief- Snape laid back down and rolled over.

Each and every one of them remained silent for about five more minutes, until someone- it was hard for Aerin to tell which of the boys was which in the lighting- pointed over towards the staircase, meaning it was time to scram. They all walked quickly down to the Common Room and into the dungeons, taking great care to be silent, until they finally broke out into a run.

All of them ran and ran, from the dungeons, all the way up to the seventh floor. After speaking the password to the now very irritated picture of the fat lady, they walked into the Common Room, looking exhausted, but content.

James high-fived Remus. "That was awesome!" he half-yawned. Remus and Peter nodded their agreement, and then headed up the staircase to the Gryffindor boys' dormitory. James was half-way up the staircase when he looked back at Sirius. "Padfoot? You coming?" he inquired.

Sirius shook his head, his shaggy black hair falling perfectly in place whenever his head turned. "I'm gonna… just wait here for a little bit more. I'll be up in a minute or two."

James shrugged. "Suit yourself," he replied indifferently. With a final confused look at Sirius, he headed on up to the dormitory.

Sirius stared over at the reason he'd stayed behind- Aerin. She was so pale, that she almost looked like a corpse, and as soon as she'd entered the Common Room, she'd curled up in one of the armchairs. He was pretty sure she was asleep now, since her breathing was even, though shaky.

For how long he sat there, he wasn't sure. It felt like a hundred years might have passed before he stood up and walked over to her. As his hand cautiously pressed against her forehead, he jerked it back in surprise. She had a fever, and a very high one at that. Without a second thought, he rushed up the stairs to the boys' dormitory and grabbed some of the blankets off his bed, running back down again before he could tell whether anyone was awake or not.

He laid the blankets over Aerin tenderly, then sat back down again. Her fever had been so high, that he'd made up his mind to stay down for an even longer amount of time.

Just as he was beginning to doze off, he heard a noise from behind him that sounded like someone clearing their throat. Sirius jerked around in his seat, and saw the cause of the sound. James was standing there, still in his pajamas, smirking at Sirius.

Letting out a low whistle, James vaulted himself onto the couch, and remained smirking. "So… the infamous Sirius Black, most wanted of the entire female population at Hogwarts… actually 'likes' someone?" he asked, grinning.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Sirius protested stubbornly.

James jerked his head over towards Aerin. "Sure you do! C'mon mate, you've been head over heels for that girl ever since she walked through the doors. You're crazy about her."

Sirius couldn't think of anything to say in his own defense, so he stared at the floor in silence.

"I mean, you even acted nervous around her at one point! You, of all people! Usually you just ignore girls who are around you, but with her, you flirt all the time!" James remarked.

"You mean the way you flirt with Lily?" Sirius asked, in hopes that he could get James to shut up.

James nodded. "Yeah, the way I flirt with… hey!" he replied indignantly. Then he sighed. "You're hopeless, you know?"

Sirius grinned and shrugged.

James shook his head. "You finally find a girl who doesn't act like a bumbling idiot to get your attention- and you won't even admit to your best friend that you like her!"

Sirius smacked his forehead exasperatedly. "I never said I liked her! And… how do I even know she likes me?" he added.

"Have you ever met a girl who didn't like you?" James reasoned.

Sirius thought for a moment. "Lily!" he protested.

James smirked proudly. "That's because Lily likes me. But for nearly every other girl, they probably snog pictures of you before they go to sleep!"

Sirius slumped down in his seat. Sometimes, he couldn't tell whether James spoke words of wisdom, or those of a complete moron.

The next morning, Aerin opened her eyes slowly, squinting as she adjusted herself to the light. It took her a minute to realize that she was all alone in the Common Room. She felt surprisingly well-rested for someone who had slept in an armchair all night. It was an even greater surprise to her when she felt something covering her. It turned out to be a few blankets.

She sat up in the armchair, letting the blankets fall to the floor. It was amazing how much better she felt since last night. Her fever had diminished till she was just the right temperature again, and she was no longer pale. Even her coughing and sneezing had disappeared.

After a moment, she stood up. The boys were nowhere to be seen, and it was a Sunday, so she knew there were no classes.

The mystery of where the boys were was solved as she stood up and walked over to a window. She could recognize her friends out on the grounds, even if it was from a distance. Just as she was about to leave the Common Room, she thought about the most likely reason that she'd caught a cold yesterday. Quickly, she ran up to the girls' dormitory and grabbed a jacket. She didn't want to make the same stupid mistake twice.

Another thing she'd been able to recognize from a distance was a thick blanket of gleaming white powder. While she'd been exhausted with fever, it had snowed heavily last night.

The boys were trudging through the snow, talking cheerfully amongst one another, when, at the same time, they recognized the auburn-haired teen who was running as fast as she could to catch up with them. Just to be a pain, James elbowed Sirius, jerked his thumb over towards Aerin, and then flashed him a thumbs up.

Sirius sighed and ignored him as they stopped to wait for Aerin, but when James continued to get on his nerves, Sirius stomped on his foot hard, causing James to grab his foot in pain.

Aerin grinned at them as she finally joined them. "Er… anyone want to tell me why James is hopping on one foot?" she asked, laughing a little.

"Er… cause I… like to try new dance moves in the snow…?" James tried.

Sirius grinned. "Yeah, James is weird like that," he added.

James gave him a look that quite plainly told him not to push his luck.

Sirius merely snickered. Then he looked over at Aerin. "Are you… er, feeling better? You had a really high fever last night," he told her, a worried expression on his face.

Her face reddened slightly as she desperately hoped that she hadn't made too much of a scene. "Oh, I'm fine. When I was younger and got sick or something, I'd always get fevers that were over one hundred degrees or something like that," she explained hurriedly.

That only made him look more alarmed. "Aerin, are you sure you're alright? I mean, should I have gotten you some medicine last night?"

She grinned sheepishly. "No, really, I feel fine," Aerin assured him.

Sirius raised an eyebrow, stating silently, but quite clearly that he still didn't believe her.

As Aerin noticed his look, she stopped walking, arms crossed indignantly. "So you won't believe me?" she asked solemnly.

Sirius blinked, not knowing how to respond. He turned towards James and Remus, hoping they'd give him some sign of what to do. However, before any of them could signal anything, Sirius was hit in the back of the head with a fistful of snow. He turned around slowly, only to see Aerin staring at him smugly.

Sirius wiped the snow out of his hair, and couldn't help but grin.

James started laughing. "Ha! Padfoot just got-" he started to taunt, but was cut off abruptly as a snowball hit him in the face. It was difficult to tell whether it was Aerin or Sirius who had thrown that snowball, seeing as both of them were laughing, and both looked remarkably guilty.

James narrowed his eyes at both of them after he wiped the snow off. "Alright, that's-"

He was cut off as yet another snowball pummeled him. Sirius was the culprit behind that one. He'd made a few more snowballs, and used his wand to make them levitate a few feet off the ground.

James gulped, eyeing the snowballs nervously. As the snowballs began to chase after him, he ran as fast as he could across the grounds. Even Remus and Peter couldn't help but laugh as James tripped and fell face first in the snow.

Sirius walked over to help James up, still laughing cheerfully. James stood up, looking annoyed. He spat out a mouthful of snow so that it landed on Sirius's shoe.

"Nasty!" Sirius whined, shaking his foot so the snow-spit came off.

James grinned triumphantly. He wanted to pay Sirius back for pelting him with snowballs, and he was just getting started.

Sirius scooped up another snowball, patting it down so it was firm. He was just about to aim it for James, when another ball of the powder hit him in the back of the head again. Not dropping the snowball he'd just made, Sirius turned around to see who'd hit him.

Aerin was standing there, grinning. "You were leaving me out of the game," she explained simply.

Sirius let the snowball fall to the ground, and wiped his hands off, though still smirking. "Well, I guess we'll have to fix that."

Aerin stood there for a minute, staring at him with a confused expression. Then she broke out into a run, simply because she had no idea what he was going to do.

Sirius ran right after her. Unfortunately for Aerin, he was a bit faster than her, and soon he was right behind her. The chase continued only for a few more minutes, when Sirius finally caught up to her, and pinned her by her shoulders against a nearby tree, firmly, but not in a way that hurt her. "I win," he told her cockily.

Aerin struggled to get free, but it was to no use. "Let me go!" she demanded.

Sirius pretended to think over her request. "Hmm… not until you admit I win!"

Aerin sighed exasperatedly. "Win what, exactly? It's not even a snowball fight anymore now that you have me trapped against a tree!" she told him indignantly.

Sirius paused. "That's a good point… okay, well, I guess it was sort of like tag, so you still have to admit that I win!" he laughed.

Aerin would have smacked her forehead if her arms had been free. "Nu-uh!" she replied.

He laughed. "Then you'll just have to stay against this tree until you come to your senses and admit that I win."

She considered for a moment, then merely leaned against the tree, as though she was quite comfortable right where she was.

Sirius continued to hold her against the tree, convinced that she would bend to his demands sooner or later. When she continued to remain silent, he frowned a little. "You're no fun sometimes," he whined.

Aerin grinned contentedly. "I've been told that before," she nodded thoughtfully.

Then, without meaning to, Aerin admitted that he had won… whatever game they'd been playing, while Sirius let go of her, at the exact same time. They stared at each other for a moment, both grinning sheepishly, and each certain that the other had relented first. Unfortunately… the moment was broken as James just 'happened' to pass by, giving a very loud cough that sounded remarkably like the word "flirt".

Sirius shot his head around to glare at James, but when he glanced back at Aerin, he was blushing just a bit.

Remus, who had preferred to merely watch their snowball fight, rather than join in, suddenly looked towards the big doors that led into Hogwarts. "Here comes trouble!" he remarked cheerfully.

James, Aerin, and Sirius all whipped around to see what Remus was talking about. It only took them about two seconds to figure it out- there, storming across the grounds right at them, was Snape. His hair wasn't pink, letting them know that he must have found someone to fix it, whether it was a professor, the nurse, or another student. For a moment, they fretted that perhaps no one had seen his hair before it had been returned to normal. However, their worries were eased as a crowd of a few students followed him out of the building for a few steps, pointing at him and laughing.

Snape looked absolutely furious as he continued to approach the boys, but they, on the other hand, looked absolutely delighted upon seeing Snape. In their minds, the chance to make him miserable was like getting an early birthday present.

Sirius leaned against the tree that he had previously trapped Aerin against, casually, as Snape finally reached them. James was leaning against the tree as well, hands in his pockets. Remus remained where he was.

Snape glared at all of the boys, not really noticing Aerin. It was plain to see that he hated them with as much disdain as was possible to muster. "It was you, Potter!" he spat out.

James cocked his head to one side, looking confused. "What do you mean, Snivellus?" he asked, attempting to sound innocent.

"My hair!" Snape growled.

"Sorry Snivellus, but James isn't responsible for how greasy that rat's nest you insist upon calling 'hair' is," Sirius grinned.

Snape shot Sirius a glare, but silently stormed off to a different part of the grounds.

All of the boys started laughing at once. James was laughing so hard, he slipped and landed flat on his bottom on the snow. Pushing himself up to a sitting position, he continued laughing.

Even Peter was cracking up a little, despite the fact that he was still terrified of Aerin.

Remus grinned. "The look on his face was pure gold! At least now we know just how much he 'enjoyed' your little prank."

Sirius nodded. "I'll bet we just made his day," he smirked. "Maybe we should try to 'cheer him up' more often?" he suggested jokingly.

Aerin laughed a little, then stretched a bit. "Well… what do we do now?" she asked, looking bored, but content.

James shrugged. "I dunno… how about we head back inside?" he asked.

"Why so soon?" Remus inquired, though he really didn't care too much either way.

Sirius grinned. "Yeah, why now? We've only been out here for a little bit."

James sighed wearily. "Because, this snow that I'm sitting on is very cold, and I think my butt's starting to get numb."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

As the next few days wore on, it grew even colder outside, making the students huddle together in groups when having outside classes. Soon, the lake froze over to a drab steely gray sheet of ice.

When the winter break persisted to draw nearer and nearer, Aerin, all of the other boys, and a good majority of the students at Hogwarts tended to goof off a bit more. However, due to the fact that Aerin's Transfiguration seemed to be making no progress whatsoever, goofing off probably wasn't the best idea.

One day during Transfiguration, the class seemed to go increasingly slow to Aerin. She was drumming her fingers on the desk, when Professor Minerva McGonagall turned around suddenly.

"Is there a problem, Miss Lorenta?" she sighed, in a tone that said she was quite fed up.

Aerin rolled her eyes. "Not at all," she replied innocently.

The rest of the class progressed, while Aerin simply drowned out everything that was said. Peh… it wasn't like she would be able to do any of it anyways.

Finally, as it came to a close, Aerin stood up and started grabbing her books as she got ready to go, just like the rest of the students.

"Aerin… I'd like to talk with you for a minute," McGonagall said, just before Aerin was out of the door.

Aerin gave an annoyed sigh as she turned right back around and marched right up to the professor's desk. "Yes?" she asked through gritted teeth.

Minerva sighed. "Aerin, you are failing this class," she told her, point blank. She was the kind of person who didn't approve of beating around the bush. "I really don't know why… if you actually tried, rather than go out of your way to ignore me, your grades could skyrocket."

Aerin stared blankly. Failing? She couldn't fail! Though earlier in class, she had preferred to pay more attention to a fly that had been passing by, the professor certainly had her complete attention now.

"I'm certain that if you worked harder in class for the remainder of the year, and did one extra credit assignment… well, you could scrape up a passing grade. You'll also need to do well on the exams at the end of the year too… but let's just focus on the present grade for now," Professor McGonagall told her.

Aerin nodded, making a silent vow to not only pass the exams, but pass with flying colors- no matter how much she despised Transfiguration.

McGonagall thought for a moment. "Your extra credit assignment will be pretty easy. All you'll need to do is transfigure the element of an object of your choice, to a completely different element, while keeping the object's shape the same. Turn in the transfigured object to me some time in the next two months. I'm afraid I'll be quite busy, so I've no specified date," she instructed Aerin.

Aerin nodded again, though her thoughts were still as sarcastic as ever after she practically fled from the classroom. Heh… she doubted that Peter would want to be anywhere near her while she practiced her Transfiguration.

At first, it surprised Aerin to see that the boys had waited for her right outside of the classroom, rather than go on to dinner, like she had suspected they would. She smiled a little as she then realized it wasn't so surprising after all… there had been plenty of times they had waited for her before.

James looked at Sirius impatiently. "Can we go eat NOW?" he whined.

Sirius nodded, laughing a bit as they started walking.

Remus smirked at James. "Aw, James isn't being frumpy, is he?" he laughed.

James scowled indignantly. "I'm not being frumpy!"

"Are too," Remus replied.

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am **not**!" James insisted, looking thoroughly annoyed by now.

Remus let the argument drop, but still looked amused.

As they finally reached the Great Hall, James and Sirius rushed towards a table. Remus and Peter followed them as well. Soon, Aerin followed too.

If this had been one of her first days at Hogwarts again, Aerin would've stared at the boys in complete disbelief for nearly the whole time that dinner lasted. The boys… could **EAT**. They ate constantly, talking and laughing all the while. Even though it no longer surprised her of the amount of food they managed to cram down into their stomachs, she still found it hilarious to watch them from time to time.

Sirius leaned back in his chair, looking content. "I don't think I could eat another bite!" he remarked happily.

Aerin laughed. "I'd bet you could find some room somewhere in that bottomless pit of a stomach. You seem to every other time!"

Sirius rolled his eyes, but grinned. "Oh, you're so funny," he said sarcastically.

After a few more minutes, they finally all got up, deciding to head back to the Common Room.

They walked on, each of them looking cheerful, when the conversation suddenly came to a stop. A group of Slytherins were approaching them slowly, whispering amongst one another. They reached Aerin and the boys after another moment, examining them. It was obvious who the leader of the group was- a small, lean boy, who was even paler than Remus, with silky light blond hair. He could almost have been mistaken for handsome, save for the fact that his eyes were cold and piercing, and the unquestionable smirk on his face. "Hello Black, Potter…" he addressed them. He hadn't bothered to mention Aerin, Remus, or Peter.

Sirius and James glared, and attempted to walk away. However, the Slytherins followed after them.

"Oh? You won't even let me take a good look at our newest student?" the pale boy asked.

"Bug off, Lucius! Why don't you go have a nice little tea party with Snape, or whatever you normally do for fun?" Sirius snapped.

Lucius's smirk turned to somewhat of a sneer. "Hmm…" he replied. However, the smirk came back just before he turned around. "Have fun with your flunky of a girlfriend!" he remarked, smiling coldly, as he and the rest of the Slytherins walked off in the other direction.

"Girlfriend?" Aerin and Sirius spat out, Aerin blushing faintly.

In the days that came to pass, the nickname Lucius had bestowed upon Aerin became quite popular among the Slytherins. When she was walking in the corridors, they'd often snicker and point at her.

For most people, this would have been extremely humiliating. Aerin, on the other hand, rather enjoyed it. Or, at least, she seemed to. She'd simply smirk and take a dramatic bow, whenever they called her 'flunky'. It was as though the fact that they seemed to loathe her now made her enjoy trying out her new power of pestering them. Soon, it became evident how much she loved having her new nickname, and the Slytherins gave up. Unfortunately for them, the Gryffindors also noticed how much that Aerin accepting her nickname bothered the Slytherins, so they occasionally would keep the nickname going in the corridors. Once, someone even yelled out, "All hail the flunky!"

The only thing that troubled her was why exactly Lucius had called her a 'flunky' in the first place. If it was because of her being kicked out of Beauxbatons, then that was all nice and well. But if he'd somehow found out about what was going on in Transfiguration… she shuddered, not wanting to think about the possibility of her flunking.

One thing that did comfort her quite a bit was the fact that her skills in Transfiguration **were** improving. They were improving at an extremely slow rate, but she was getting better all the same. She had been practicing on her extra credit assignment late at night, in the Common Room. The object she'd chosen was a large, wild rose, not yet in full bloom, with plenty of thorns up and down the stem. For the first three nights, no matter how hard she tried, there had been no change in the rose, other than the fact that a thorn had broken off and had gotten stuck in her thumb. However, on the fourth night, a small portion of one of the leaves changed to glimmering, shimmering crystal. This gave her hope to further improve.

Ever since the night she had been so sick, Aerin had unintentionally made it a habit to sleep in the Common Room. The girls' dormitory wasn't a very pleasant place for Aerin. They often stared at her and whispered. It would have been better, in Aerin's opinion, if she was able to know right out if they were making fun of her, or simply just wondering about her. She was weird, and she knew it, so it was only understandable for some people to wonder. Still… Aerin couldn't tell, and so she felt she didn't know what to do. Thus, in order to avoid watching, but never quite hearing them whisper, the stayed down in the Common Room, going up to the girls' dormitory only to change clothes.

Sirius hadn't taken long to figure out that she had started sleeping down in the Common Room. Sometimes, he came downstairs to talk with her, before he went up to the boys' dormitory to get some sleep. James would usually be sitting on the edge of his bed, smirking at him, when Sirius came upstairs. In reply to the smirk, Sirius often just threw a pillow at him.

It seemed like an eternity before the long-awaited winter break finally arrived. Aerin had decided to stay at Hogwarts- no surprise there. The four boys, along with a small percentage of the student body at Hogwarts, also had made the decision to stay.

Aerin felt almost sorry for those students who had gone to visit their families for the holidays. The whole school was brilliant and vibrant, with decorations in almost every direction. Despite the bleary dullness and grayness of the grounds outside, everyone who'd stayed behind was about as comfortable and warm as could be. They occasionally enjoyed looking up at the ceiling of the Great Hall, to watch the snow drifting overhead, to and fro, seeing as the Great Hall showed what the sky outside was like.

Aerin was quite weird, in that she was the sort of person who could stay up till all hours of the night, and still wake up bright and early. She didn't exactly like to wake up early… actually, she was grouchy in the mornings. But, for whatever the reason, she was often up at the crack of dawn, save for a few times her body had been absolutely too exhausted to rise. The boys, on the other hand, preferred sleeping as late as was possible to get away with, except Remus, who usually woke up an hour or two before the other three boys. Still, this usually left Aerin with quite a bit of free time before being able to hang out with her four friends.

During one of these early morning free times, a group of girls came downstairs, which surprised Aerin. She was used to being all by herself when she was downstairs in the morning.

Of the four or so girl, it was obvious who was doing most of the talking. She was short, but slender, with smooth fair skin. Her mouth was small and delicate, while her hair was long and sweeping, and midnight black in color. Large, lovely, and gray were her eyes, wide like those of a deer in headlights.

Aerin couldn't help but feel a small pang of disdain for this girl, though she'd never noticed her before. The girl was the spitting image of the girls that had been at Beauxbatons. Then her disdain turned to guilt. Surely this girl wouldn't act like those girls had? She listened to the conversation the group of girls was carrying on. After only the first few minutes, though, she became so incredibly bored, she was tempted to go right back to sleep. The conversation was so overwhelmingly dull, Aerin wasn't sure if she was able to detect a single sign of intelligence. No, she took the guilt back. These girls were Beauxbatons all over again. She sighed, infinitely bored… this was going to be a **LONG** morning.

Indeed, a long morning it was. Plus, the fact that the boys had decided to sleep even later than usual didn't exactly help. By the time all four of the boys had come down to the Common Room, Aerin had pretty much plugged her ears in hopes of escaping the girls' endless chit-chat.

"Who is that… no, better yet, WHAT is that… that thing?" she inquired, pointing a finger over at the gray-eyed girl.

The boys glanced over in the direction that Aerin was pointing. "Huh? Oh, that's just Dia," Remus answered.

James smirked. "But we know her better as the "Diasaurus Rex." One of the leading monsters of the fan clubs."

"Fan clubs?"

"Yeah! Though the ladies do love me (Here, Remus rolled his eyes), Sirius has quite a few fan clubs. He's pretty familiar with Dia, aren't you Sirius?"

Sirius groaned. "Don't remind me," he mumbled.

Peter, who'd previously been laughing, now stopped. "Okay Sirius!" he squeaked out.

James, however, just laughed. "Tell her what happened! Tell her! Tell her about last Christmas!" James pleaded.

Sirius sighed. "Last Christmas, we held a party here in the Gryffindor Common Room. Everything was going great… until the giggling git trapped me under some mistletoe… enchanted mistletoe, mind you. I couldn't get out from under it, until I snogged someone!" he grumbled.

Remus snickered. "I don't think I've ever seen someone peck a person on the cheek so quickly."

"Must've disappointed Dia! I'll bet that she had been expecting a big long smooch!" James added in, making mock kissy faces.

"Shut up!" Sirius muttered.

Aerin pasted a grin on her face, her dislike for Dia swelling intensely. "Are you serious?" she asked James.

James shook his head. "No, **he's** Sirius!" he told her. "I'm James! Gee, and I thought you had known that all this time," he added.

Sirius gave James an amused glance.

Aerin sighed. "10,000 comedians at work in the world, and you're still trying to be funny," she told James.

James only looked proud. "Not trying… succeeding!" he corrected her.

Lily Evans, who also had stayed behind for Christmas, stopped by where the group was sitting momentarily. "Potter… the day you're considered funny without having to make a moron of yourself, is the day I eat my left foot," she remarked, shaking her head, before striding out of the Common Room.

"Wait! Lily! Liiiiiiiilllllllyyyyy!" James called after her disappointedly. He had wanted to talk with Lily more!

Sirius grinned, sympathetically. By now, he was used to seeing these sorts of comments Lily gave James. Though he had to admit- James was admirable for how he never gave up in his attempts to woo Lily. "Relax, mate. She'll come around soon enough!" Sirius assured him.

James's look turned to a determined one. "Of course she will! No one can resist James Potter!" he exclaimed. He winked at two of the girls over in Dia's little group, as though proving his point when they let out an elated giggle and began to chatter excitedly.

Aerin let out of a fit of coughing, looking as though she had started gagging. She held her throat dramatically, as though James's words were causing her pain.

James rolled his eyes. "Shut up, giggle butt!" he told Aerin.

Aerin stopped her fake gagging and reddened considerably. "I only did that to get the password for you, dear friend!" she defended.

After a few more minutes of bickering, the two finally ceased the argument, long enough to notice that Sirius and Remus weren't on the couch beside them anymore.

"Incoming!" Remus yelled from behind them, struggling not to laugh as Sirius ran, hurtling himself over the couch, landing right in the middle of it with a huge bounce, causing both Aerin and James to fall off of it, to the floor.

James was laughing as he straightened himself up, pushing his glasses back to the bridge of his nose. "You are, by far, the biggest pain in the butt that it has been my pleasure to band together with, Mr. Black!"

Remus snorted. "How about we just stick with the 'biggest pain in the butt' part?" he suggested.

The very next was Christmas Eve. The boys, and Aerin, spent most of the time sitting in the Common Room, wrapping their gifts for one another.

While Aerin and Remus struggled silently with flattening the wrapping paper, so the presents wouldn't seem lumpy, Sirius and James busted out into laughter as they watched Peter attempt to use magic to wrap his packages. One of the ribbons had now decided to try and tie Peter up nice and neat, rather than the gifts. James and Sirius grinned, and rushed over to help the poor bumbling boy.

Remus growled frustratedly at his wrapping paper. "Perhaps you two should actually get back to wrapping those poor, pitiful forgotten gifts, rather than goof off at every opportunity?" he suggested to them.

James gasped, letting go of the ribbon for a moment. "And let poor Peter be strangled? Really Remus, I had thought better of you! I'd never have expected you to forget about one of your best friends and let him be strangled!" he laughed. It seemed, however, that James was the one who had forgotten about helping Peter, because Sirius was currently the only one yanking at the stubborn ribbon. Peter meeped as the stubborn ribbon refused to come off of him.

In time, James went back to battling with the ribbon, looking triumphant as he and Sirius finally managed to pull it off of Peter. Peter sheepishly went back to wrapping the gifts he'd bought, though he just stuck to bows rather than ribbons, now.

"There. All done!" Aerin remarked as she pushed the last of her gifts off to the side. She chose to pay no attention to the stubborn lump of paper sticking up on the present.

Sirius let out a bark-like laugh. "Same here!" he grinned, pointing back at the small pile of presents he'd purchased for his friends.

"How could you possibly finish that fast?" Remus demanded to know, looking disheveled at his share of wrapping paper, which had turned out to not be enough to completely cover over the current present that he was wrapping.

Sirius grinned innocently. "Why, genius, I used gift bags!" he replied. It was true. Lacking the attention span to take the time to properly wrap a gift, Sirius and James had simply decided to save time and place the gifts in bags, instead.

James finished shortly after. Soon, he and Sirius were amusing themselves by sending pillows flying over towards one another with their wands. The two were forced to stop by Remus, though, when one of the pillows narrowly missed the roaring fire in the fireplace.

Remus also finally wrapped his final gift, all of them miraculously managing to look picture-perfect.

At last, Peter also concluded his session of wrapping presents.

The five of them made their way to the Great Hall for Christmas dinner. As they took their seats, they could smell multiple aromas of all kinds of delicious foods.

Professor Dumbledore waved to them happily from the teachers' table. He smiled cheerfully before going back to humming the tune of a Christmas carol that no one seemed to be quite familiar with.

Course after course of the meal was absolutely wonderful. All of them piled their plates high with mounds of tenderly cooked turkey, pot roast, fresh bread, dripping with hot butter, green beans, and, of course, stuffing. Dessert was even better, consisting of bread puddings, chocolate cakes, chewy biscuits, and an exquisite yet odd, peppermint pie.

Of course, they didn't eat all of those things mentioned- those were simply some of the many choices available.

After all of them were so stuffed, they felt as though they might burst, came the wizard crackers.

Thus, when they all left the Great Hall to finally go back to the Gryffindor Common Room, it was quite an amusing sight, what with James Potter wearing a pair of reindeer antlers, and Sirius Black in a hat similar to that of Father Christmas.

It took Aerin a moment to register that she was hearing voices the next morning. As she slowly opened her eyes, she nearly fell out of her usual armchair, as she realized the boys had already come on downstairs.

"What time is it?" Aerin mumbled sleepily.

Sirius looked slightly proud. "Fifteen minutes after six in the morning!" he replied.

Aerin rubbed her eyes as she straightened up a little. "What? No joke? Why don't you ever get up this early on days we have classes?" she groaned, flicking little specks of sleep away as she rubbed it out of her eyes.

"Because, we only get up early for important stuff!" James replied.

Sirius smirked and nodded his head in agreement with James's statement. Then he looked at Aerin as innocently as was possible, head cocked to one side. "Wow, I wonder how old Saint Nick knew just where to put your presents?" he exclaimed, pointing at the small pile of gifts right beside the armchair that Aerin was still sitting in.

Aerin snorted, not believing the look on Sirius's face for even a minute. "Oh yes, ha ha, what a coincidence!" she laughed sarcastically. "Makes it even more surprising that the wrapping paper and gift bags match the ones I saw you all using yesterday!"

The boys all grinned, and then laughed. Remus finally stopped laughing and grinned again. "Well, what are we waiting for? Time to open presents!" he yelled happily.

They all began to exchange the gifts and open them hurriedly, eager to see what their packages were. After that, it was all a blur of candies, Quidditch supplies, prank books, and butterbeer. Yet there had never been a time when the Gryffindor Common Room had been quite so cheerful.

Later that night, after Remus, James, and Peter had gone up to the boys' dormitory, Aerin and Sirius had decided to remain downstairs and talk for a little while.

Aerin had become a bit more cautious lately. She had one day found that she stared at Sirius a good deal more lately. Also, though she still loathed Dia entirely, it had occurred to her how she had merely disliked her until she had found out that Dia had kissed Sirius. This kind of behavior was so unusual for Aerin, it had begun to freak her out. So, she had closed up, hardly talking to Sirius unless the others were around. As she sat there, Sirius beside her on the couch, she did her best to cover up the fact that she was nervous and uncomfortable.

If Sirius had been aware that that was how she currently felt, he would have had to admit that she was succeeding remarkably well in hiding it. The only thing he knew was that lately, their nightly conversations had suddenly vanished. She had started coming up with some excuse about why he needed to go on up to bed every time he tried to stay downstairs. Tonight was the first night in awhile that he'd been able to talk with her. He felt slightly awkward now. Why did she seem to want to avoid him?

Aerin was at a loss of any possible way to strike up an even semi-interesting conversation, when something on the bulletin board caught her attention. A large piece of parchment was tacked to it, that she had been too busy opening presents to notice it in the morning.

Sirius, noticing where her eyes darted to, walked over to the bulletin board, snatching the parchment up. He went pale as he read it… and read it again. Finally, after reading it about eight more times, he walked back over to Aerin. His eyes darted to the floor for a minute, and he blurted out the question that had come to his mind. "Any chance you'd want to go to the New Year's Eve Ball with me?"

Aerin stared, unsure how to respond. She was positive her heart had skipped a beat.

"As… friends, of course," he added, looking a bit downcast.

"Of course…" Aerin repeated him slowly. "Well… I guess we're going to a Ball together," she finally responded. And it was the truth. There would be Sirius… and herself… at the first Ball she'd ever bothered to attend in her life.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** Oh. My. Gah. I am so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, SO sorry that it has taken me this long to upload this freaking chapter. I nearly forgot about this fic, truth be told. I've been really busy with school and planning vacation for summer and all that 'fun' stuff.  
It's probably not even a good chapter, and you guys waited all this time for it... so... once again, I'm really sorry. I am. Feel free to throw rotten vegetables at me for taking so long, as long as you don't flame.

**Side note:** I don't know how, but one way or another, this fic caught on with a lot of my friends. And now many of them have asked me to put their OCs into it. Of course I can't put them all, but I did add another OC that belongs to meh buddy, Issa. xD I know, I know, waaaaaaaaay too many OCs in this story, but... that's what happens when you Roleplay this all out as a first draft.  
And speaking of Roleplay... I'd like to thank another of meh buddies--Grease. Or Breanne. Whichever you'd like to callher. Brease, thanks for Roleplaying the majority of all this out with me, so as to keep me occupied when I was on the verge of infinite boredom!

**Disclaimer:** O-o If you don't already get the point that I don't own anything even remotely Harry Potter-related, other than my OC, Aerin, then you've got mushrooms growing on your brain.

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**Chapter 5**

It hadn't taken very long for word of the New Year's Eve Ball to travel around. Soon, it was all anyone could talk about. Upon word of the Ball, many students quickly flocked back to Hogwarts with only a quick good-bye to their family. It was obvious everyone wanted to go ahead and ask someone before there was no one left to go with.

On the whole, a good majority of students were pretty quiet about who they actually planned to ask, though most gossip consisted of who was taking whom. Most students only informed their closest friends (who usually ended up telling more people, which was the reason for so much gossip) who they intended to ask. But of course there were always a few students who had absolutely no problem whatsoever with declaring to anything that breathed who they were positive that they would invite to the Ball. James Potter was one of these people.

Whenever he overheard anyone chattering about the New Year's Ball, he'd bound up to the group doing the talking, and proudly announce the name of the one and only girl he had in mind to ask—of course, that girl was none other than Lily Evans.

One of the more interesting events that happened shortly after most students had returned to Hogwarts occurred a few short days from when the Ball was scheduled to take place.

James had been proudly boasting to a group of Fifth Years about how Lily was certainly going to be going with him to the New Year's Eve Ball. Unfortunately, Lily happened to be passing by, and overheard the whole conversation.

Lily cleared her throat after a minute, when James seemed to not have noticed that she was there.

He turned around, spotting her and looking positively delighted. "Lily! Just the girl I've been needing to talk to!" he mused cheerfully.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Potter—" she began.

James cut her off, but not in a rude manner. "I'll get straight to the point—will you go to the Ball with me?"

She frowned, shaking her head slightly, long red waves bouncing this way and that. "I don't think so…" she remarked.

James's look turned to a somewhat pleading one. "Aw, c'mon, please?"

"I already said 'no'," she replied, attempting to walk away.

He deserted the Fifth Years to follow Lily. "When have I ever asked you for anything?" he whined.

"Right before winter break, you borrowed my quill, and you still haven't given it back," she retorted. "And then there was—"

James scratched his head. "Well, aside from that… _pleeeaaasssee_? Go to the New Year's Eve Ball with me?" he begged. It was obvious he was ready to get down on his knees at any point, if only to continue his pleading.

Lily sighed in frustration. "James, couldn't you just leave me alone?"

"No, not really!" he told her after thinking for a moment. "Just go to the Ball with me?" he requested again.

Lily smacked her forehead, groaning. He wasn't going to leave her alone. He just wouldn't let her be. He defiantly rebelled her right to privacy! And that only left her with one other option. "ALL RIGHT!" Yes, she relented, though she was looking none too happy about it.

"Lily, please, I'll—" James began again. Then he stopped, blinking in confusion. "Alright? Wait, you mean you'll go… with me?" he asked, looking totally lost by now.

"Don't you DARE make me repeat myself!"

Poor James didn't know what to say, or even think for that matter. "You're not… kidding? This isn't all some cruel joke?"

She shook her head. "No, Potter. No joke," she said simply. She finally was able to slide pas him and walk up to the girls' dormitory, seeing as James was in a state of complete disbelief.

James eventually managed to come back to reality, though he still seemed as though he didn't quite believe his ears. "I'll meet you down here before the Ball…" He spoke dazedly, hardly even realizing that Lily was no longer downstairs with him, and that he was instead speaking to the staircase.

---

It was now two days before the New Year's Eve Ball, and Remus J. Lupin still had no intention of asking anyone. He had always been friends with James and Sirius, but it was no secret that he was much more laid back than they were. The shy one… that was what Remus was and always had been. No, even Peter, clumsy loveable idiot that he was, was more outgoing than Remus. Remus doubted whether he would even go to the Ball at all. After all, if he had no intention of asking someone, what was the point? Of course his lack of enthusiasm only caused Sirius and James to be excited for him.

"C'mon mate, surely there's some girl you've got in mind to ask?" Sirius asked for about the fiftieth time that day, raising an eyebrow.

Remus rolled his eyes. "Do I really have to answer that… again?" he sighed frustratedly.

"Yes!" James and Sirius yelled at him simultaneously.

"No."

James paused. "Wait, 'no' what? 'No' you won't answer, or 'No' there's no girl you've got your eye on?"

"No, there is no girl I can think of to ask to the Ball," Remus restated, a bit slower that time.

"Aw, why not? Worried that your furry little problem would get in the way?" Sirius remarked huffily.

"You're a fine one to be talking about furry problems!" Remus retorted.

Sirius only looked proud. "Alright, so I'm a hypocrite. Sue me." He waited for a few minutes, and then frowned disappointedly. "Hello? Oy! Where's the usual smart alec response?"

Remus tore his eyes away from a girl that had sat down by herself at a table not very far from where the three boys were sitting. "Huh?" he asked Sirius.

James and Sirius looked first at the girl, then Remus, then each other. Their faces each broke out into cocky grins, which were then replaced by smirks that curled from their lips. They dropped their voices to hushed whispers before looking back at Remus.

"After careful consideration," Sirius began.

"And much debating!" James added.

"Mr. Potter and I have decided that we approve!" Sirius finished. By "we approve", they meant "go ahead and ask her to the Ball now, you twit!"

The girl looked a bit like Dia, with pale skin and dark hair, but there were a few differences. She was a lot taller than Dia, gangly in fact, though still slender. Her hair was also a bit more windblown, though not precisely tangled. Her eyes? They were like two turquoise orbs set evenly in her face. In all, she didn't have Dia's perfect little doll-like appearance (The boys were actually rather glad she didn't; it was doubtful whether they could stand another girl like Dia), but she definitely wouldn't be the sort of person that it would be embarrassing to go to the Ball with.

When Remus failed to make any move to go nearer to the Girl, the other two yanked him up by his arms. "Go over there and ask her, right now!" James hissed.

Remus blinked in confusion. "Wha—?" he stated disbelievingly.

Sirius and James finally dragged Remus over to the girl, promptly pushing him down into a chair. They stood there for a moment more as there was confused silence between Remus and the girl.

"We, erm… have to do something… over there!" James announced, pointing to the other side of the Common Room.

Sirius stared at James. "We do?" he asked.

James nodded. "Yeah… don't wanna keep any particular two people from starting up a conversation!" he replied, starting off towards where he'd been pointing. When he realized Sirius wasn't following, he marched back, grabbed Sirius by the ear, and yanked him away with him.

"Ow! JAMES! My ear! Let go!" Sirius whined as he was dragged.

Remus watched his two friends walk away in disbelief. As he turned back to the girl, he blushed. Those prats! They knew he was horribly shy around girls, yet what did they go and do? They shoved him in the direction of the nearest one, and made sure he was all by himself too!

"Erm… sorry about that," he mumbled, his face still flushed with mortification.

The girl smiled sheepishly. "Oh, it's okay. If you want, I can just…" she trailed off, but gathered up her stuff as she started to move off.

"No, wait!"

She gave him a confused look, but slowly sat down again.

Remus took a deep breath. Oh, he was going to hex those gits out of what small brains they still possessed for this. "My name's… uh... Remus. Remus Lupin," he introduced awkwardly.

"Bella Johnson," the girl named Bella nodded.

"Umm… you don't, by any chance, have someone… to go to the Ball with, do you?" Remus asked, his cheeks now rivaling the color of a ripe tomato. What the heck was wrong with him? He was just meeting this girl, and the next sentence out of his mouth had something to do with the Ball!

Bella momentarily twirled a strand of her hair around one of her fingers. "Not yet," she finally replied. "Any particular reason you ask?"

Remus nodded, looking slightly discomfited. "Well, you see… I was sort of wondering if you might like to go with me."

She blinked once or twice, letting go of the strands that she had been playing with. "Go with you… to the Ball?" she repeated. "Well, um… er… sure!" she blurted out, though appeared shy in the next instant. He seemed bashful like she was, which helped to give her a little more confidence… and the fact that he was cute also helped.

He perked up a little bit, the second that his brain registered her answer. "Really? Oh, well, I guess… I guess I'll meet you here about ten? You know, so we can go down together?"

Bella smiled cheerfully. "Okay! See you then, Remus!" she told him, before standing up and exiting the Common Room—she needed to return one of her books to the library.

Less than ten seconds after Bella had departed, James and Sirius both came bounding back to their friend.

"So?" Sirius prompted Remus, trying to get details out of him.

"How did it go?" James demanded to know.

Remus, though still furious with the both of them for leaving him by himself earlier, was still quite ecstatic about Bella's answer. "She said yes!" he told them, grinning ear-to-ear.

James and Sirius swapped satisfied looks momentarily. "See, mate? We knew that she was the one for you!"

Remus's excitement phased back to more annoyance with the two for their previous desertion of him. "Of _course_ you did." His face twisted into a smirk. Standing up to go on to the boys' dormitory, he paused briefly, allowing a jet of water to splash each of them smartly in the face.

The two spat out the water that had made its way into their mouths, and started backing away from a group of girls that were now trying to rush over and assist them.

"Remus!" James whined, ducking as a girl made a swipe to help dry his hair.

---

Finally, it arrived. The day of the New Year's Eve Ball finally came, allowing some their feelings of being completely enamored—if they had managed to get a date to the dance that was. Yet for other students—mainly the ones who were going alone or skipping the Ball altogether—the perfect amount of sunlight bursting forth from the clouds and sparkling off of the crisp layer of snow was all too ironic.

Aerin was bitterly certain that it was ironic. Oh sure, she already had a date for the dance. And a handsome date at that. But she was nervous; every one of her nerve endings was on the brink. The auburn-headed teen didn't see how it was possible for other girls to make attending a ball look so simple. It was only too confusing for Aerin. There was the matter of the clothes, the hair, and the act of dancing itself! Aerin often scowled when she heard other girls discussing how they'd had their dresses ready from the first day they read the notice.

Partly, she scowled because she had only just purchased a dress this very day. But her main reason for scowling was because she loathed the idea of having to wear a dress in the first place. Frills and satin and lace just didn't appeal to her near as much as a simple pair of worn-in jeans, or her school robes.

Still—it had been hard to reject a dress like the one she had found. Aerin had been reading the _Daily Prophet_ the previous morning (she had signed up to receive it shortly after her first few days at Hogwarts) and had seen an ad for Madam Malkin's Robe Shop, advertising a handful of fine quality dresses that had no doubt been put there specifically for girls shopping for the New Year's Eve Ball.

One dress in particular had caught Aerin's eye. It was at a reasonable price, too. Of course, the price didn't matter much to Aerin. What was the worst that could happen if she spent too much? Her muggle legal guardians would scold her for spending too much wizard money? That was unlikely. So, she'd gone on ahead and bought the dress, regardless.

Aerin gave a sigh after a momentary glance out of the window. The Ball was set to begin at ten-thirty that night, and already the sun's last rays were making a dazzling exit as they danced carelessly over the gleaming snow.

As the hours continued to move along ever-slowly, some students finally adjourned to the dormitories to prepare themselves for the Ball. Aerin's stomach lurched and her nerves screamed again as she stood up and trudged up the stairs to the girls' dormitory.

Meanwhile, the boys were already getting changed into their dress robes. As Sirius slipped his arm through one sleeve, he thumped James in the back of the head with his free hand.

"Ow!" James yelped, rubbing his head and giving his friend a what-the-heck-was-that-for sort of look.

Sirius pulled his other arm through the other sleeve. "That was for STILL not telling any of us who you're going with!"

"How many times do I have to say it? You'll find out when we go downstairs!"

Sirius proceeded to button up his robes, shooting James a stare of mock anger. "Know what I think?" A smirk broke out on his handsome face. "I think maybe you don't even **_have_** a date!" he laughed.

The look on James's face was absolutely priceless. "Cocky, are we, all because you're going with Aerin?" he shot back.

Sirius's face reddened, so it was fortunate that Remus came out from the lavatory, already clothed in his dress robes. The robes were plain, but not embarrassing. They were dark red in coloring as well. "Please, if you two feel the urge to kill one another, don't do so tonight. There's a Ball remember?" He spoke softly. Peter had come down with sudden fever, and wouldn't be able to attend the Ball, so he didn't want to sadden his friend.

Sirius and James stuck their tongues out at one another, but otherwise relented. James glanced at Remus for a moment. "Lookin' good!" he snickered jokingly, giving a low wolf-whistle.

"Our little Remmiekins is growing up so fast!" Sirius chimed in, sniffling as a proud mother would.

James busted out laughing. "Remmiekins? Oh, that's a good one!" he shouted, holding to the bed-post to keep from falling to the floor in his fits of laughter.

Remus gave them both a scowl that plainly stated how he'd love to strangle them now.

James finally managed to end his laughter, though was still grinning broadly. He took a quick observation of Sirius in his midnight-blue dress robes and gave a sulky sigh. "Merlin, Black! Do you have to look so good?"

"I don't strive for perfection!" Sirius scowled. He cocked his head to one side. "Besides, you don't look so bad yourself!" he replied.

It was true. James did look rather dashing in his jet-black robes. They matched his hair perfectly.

James made his way to a mirror hanging on the wall, ruffling his hair not from front to back as the rest of the world did, but from back to front, making it, if this was even possible, more untidy than before.

Sirius and Remus stared for a moment. "I swear, Potter, you wake up with your hair neater than it is now!" Sirius snickered.

"That's because chicks dig the bed-head look," James replied, fumbling with his hair a little longer.

"Riiiigght." The two boys both snorted and shook their heads disbelievingly.

Finally, James turned to look back at the other two. He sighed heavily, the only sign of nervousness he'd shown at all that night. "Well… shall we go on downstairs?"

The other two nodded each silently praying in advance that they didn't step on anyone's feet when dancing.

When the boys came downstairs, one of the three girls—Lily, actually—was already down there.

James's jaw dropped. Okay… perhaps he shouldn't have given Sirius such a hard time about drooling earlier in the year.

Lily was clad in a dress identical in color to her emerald-green eyes. Her red hair was done in perfect ringlets that fell just below her shoulders. Resting snugly on her wrist was a bracelet just a shade darker than the dress. Upon seeing the boys enter, she scowled slightly, trying to remember why on Earth she'd agreed to go.

Sirius turned to James and smirked. "James? You might want to wipe your mouth."

James blinked, hardly having heard a word that Sirius said. He merely shrugged and went back to looking at Lily.

Remus walked a few steps over towards her. "Who ARE you going with?" he asked suspiciously. He knew Lily normally didn't go to balls unless she was going with a small group of her friends, but he didn't see any of them around.

Lily raised an eyebrow at James, ignoring Remus for a minute or so. Hmm… she'd been certain he would've spread the news that she was going to the Ball with him to anything that moved or breathed in a three mile radius. She sighed heavily. "Him," she muttered to Remus, pointing a finger in James's direction.

Remus and Sirius stopped, positive that they'd heard her wrong. "Come again?" Sirius asked blankly.

"Soap in your ears, Black?" she snapped.

Sirius grinned. "Sorry Evans, I can't hear you. I've got soap in my ears."

James laughed, shoving his best friend. "Oh, c'mon, you know you heard her! She said she's going with me!" he told them again, face glowing with pride; he was nearly beside himself with excitement.

"Well, I've got to admit that I never thought I'd see the day…" Remus remarked, shaking his head disbelievingly.

James raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing! It's just, well… Lily's always…" he trailed off, grateful for the sudden footsteps he'd just heard on the stairway to the girls' dormitory.

Both Sirius and Remus turned to see who was coming down and James seized the chance to whap Remus over the head for having doubted that Lily would ever say yes to one of James's pleas.

Yet Remus only acknowledged him by absentmindedly swatting his hand back at him, without even looking. He was a bit busy looking at the girls… well, mainly looking at Bella.

There really was only one word for Bella's dress—lovely. Lavender in color, the sleeves proceeded half-way down her arms, a layer of gauzy fabric stitched on top of them. Tipples of fabric gracefully flowed downwards, once past the waistline. Her hair was done up in a partial bun, the rest in a sort of ponytail, and a few wispy strands that had managed to escape framed her face.

Sirius hardly even took into account that Bella had also come downstairs. He was marveling at the girl who had come down with her.

She was hardly recognizable as Aerin, save for the slight scowl plastered onto her face at the fact that she was here in a dress. The dress was a marvel, and certainly nothing she'd ever wear as her everyday attire. It was golden through and through, the sort of dress that could frame one's body just right. The sleeves puffed out just a little at the shoulders, the whole dress shimmering in the light the merry fire provided the Common Room with. Yet in contrast to the dazzling dress, Aerin's hair was pulled back in a simple ponytail. It was her silent, defiant message that her being in a dress was NOT going to be a constant sight.

She blushed considerably once she saw Sirius. Yes, she of all people, was nervous now. "Hey!" she told him, her voice higher pitched than usual.

Sirius smirked, grinning cockily. A golden dress on a girl with reddish-tinted hair… she was obviously a Gryffindor, through and through.

Aerin had to stifle the urge to groan. Here Sirius was, quite the most handsome boy in the entire school—and then here she was, looking like, in her own opinion, some idiotic form of Barbie doll.

Bella timidly walked over to Remus, who by this point was very red in the face. "Hullo there!"

In return, Remus swallowed, attempting to find his voice again, for it seemed to have wandered off. "H-hi," he stuttered out, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

James turned to Lily, giving her a polite bow that she responded to by rolling her eyes. When he extended his arm and she didn't take it, he sighed. "Time to go on to the Ball?" he asked the others.

Each of them nodded in return. The first to go through the portrait hole were James and Lily, Lily only barely staying within James's range of sight. Bella and Remus were next, with Bella shyly taking Remus's hand and walking with him to go to the Great Hall. Finally, Sirius extended an arm to Aerin as James had done to Lily. Unlike Lily though, Aerin held his arm gratefully. She found it difficult to swallow; her heart felt as though it was lodged in her throat.

By the time Sirius and Aerin reached the Great Hall, the four others were already there. The Hall had been decorated beautifully. Statues of stars and snowflakes were levitating up near the ceiling, which was showing a crystal-clear night-time sky. White glitter and confetti continuously fell from places at random in the Hall, scattering all along the floor and even the walls. Many people were already dancing, since the tune of the song that was playing was cheerful and upbeat.

Sirius grinned at Aerin, helping to relieve some of her nervousness. He took a quick glance around before bowing charmingly—just for the heck of it.

Aerin smiled, rubbing her head nervously. "I feel like a ruddy git in this dress…" she mumbled.

He laughed his usual bark-like laugh. "It's not that bad!"

"You're not the one having to wear it!"

Sirius merely shrugged. "That's because guys don't wear dresses. Well… only Snivellus," he corrected himself. He looked around once more before smiling. "Now before you can complain about your dress anymore… would you like to dance?"

There was a moment of silence, and the question seemed to hang in the air between them. Finally, she nodded. Why was she so afraid? What could possibly go wrong? Why did she always so desperately try to avoid having someone… like her? Aerin wished to know.

She took his hand, and they began to walk. The song was just coming to an end as they set foot onto the dance floor, replace by a steadier, slower song. Aerin bit her lip to keep from groaning. Someone seemed to be doing all in their power to make her as uncomfortable as possible.

Meanwhile, James hadn't ventured more than five feet away from Lily. He had been hoping that she might get the hint that he wanted to dance, but if she did, she sure wasn't showing it.

He sighed heavily. "Lily?"

"What?" she asked, not bothering to look up at him.

"Do you want to dance?" James questioned.

"Of course."

"He blinked before grinning excitedly. "Great! C'mon, let's go!" he replied. When she made no move to get up, he scratched his head in confusion. "I thought you said you wanted to dance…"

Lily raised an eyebrow and smirked. "I did. I never said I wanted to dance with **YOU**." At the sight of the discouraged look on his face, she really did feel a little guilty. But… she didn't want him getting cocky. She didn't want him to get the idea she actually liked him. Yet the more she thought about it… DID she like him? Why else would she have agreed to go to the Ball with him? It couldn't all be because he was bugging her; her will was too strong for that. So… why had she agreed to go?

At the same time, Bella was tugging at Remus's arm. "Oh, come on! Dancing's fun!" she smiled.

Remus shook his head. "It's not that I don't think it's fun! It's just that… I can't dance," he admitted awkwardly.

This did nothing to cease Bella's efforts. "Is that all?" She laughed a little. "It's not that hard! Just give it a try!"

"If I look like an absolute moron, you'll know why." He walked out to the dance floor with her, his face reddening as he hesitantly put his hands on her waist. For a moment or two, he wondered if he would be slapped. Nah… he'd been reading too many romantic comedy novels. The two stepped forwards and back again, easily keeping up with the slow rhythm of the music. Somehow or other, Bella's head eventually came to rest on Remus's shoulder.

When he noticed this, he smiled. Perhaps dancing wasn't as hard as he'd assumed.

Aerin wasn't near so happy as Remus or Bella. She could feel the red-hot sting of her own reluctance seeming to burn through her flesh as she rested her hands upon Sirius's shoulders. When he placed his hands on her waist, her nervousness only grew.

This should have been bliss. It should have been ecstasy. This single dance with Sirius Black should have been moments of paradise to be forever remembered. Yet the currents of constant questions flowing about in her mind only deprived Aerin of her happiness.

Both faces inclined slightly, moving in for a kiss. The whole world appeared to go in slow motion in front of Aerin. But the questions never ceased. As she gazed up into the face of the only boy that had ever managed to charm her, to make her feel like she wasn't a nuisance or problem, she actually felt like crying on what should have been one of her happiest nights.

Just before their lips met, hesitancy took over. She pushed away from Sirius, taking off at a run. She shoved her way through the crowds of students, finally making it to the doors. A new song was playing, but all that she could hear was the beat of the drums going hand in hand with her heartbeat.

Sirius stared for a minute, mouth agape. Had he done something wrong? Without stopping to ponder the matter anymore, he shook his head and ran after her.

* * *

**A/N:** Oh, I'm evil again. But this kind of evil I don't mind. (: Leaving you all at a cliffhanger is my kind of evil.  
But I WILL try to update soon! I really shall. 

**_Please Read and Review!_**


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